China

Every route into mainland China runs through a Chinese institution. An employer, a university, a provincial talent office, or a Chinese spouse. There is no route that a foreigner can open on the strength of their own income, savings, or remote client base. That single fact explains almost everything else on this page.

Can you stay in China long term?

Yes, and for a decade or more, but only through a job, a Chinese spouse, or family reunion at retirement age. A work permit renews indefinitely in principle while the contract and the salary test hold, which makes employment the only mass route. It is also the route with the most ways to fail, because the salary thresholds are re-tested at every renewal against the current local average wage rather than the one you entered under.

Permanent residence exists. It is called the five-star card, it is valid for ten years, and it is granted in small numbers with no published quota, no published approval statistics, no reasons for refusal and no appeal. The employee route wants four consecutive years at deputy-general-manager level or its salary equivalent, and Shanghai applies a six times average wage test on top. It is not a reward for ten years of lawful work. It is a discretionary grant that happens to be administered by city exit-entry offices, which is why two applicants with identical files in two provinces can get different answers.

Citizenship is effectively closed. The Nationality Law contains a naturalisation clause, there is no published procedure, no published approvals, and China does not recognise dual nationality. Permanent residence is the end of the road, not a step. If a passport matters to your plan, China is not the country.

One tax point decides more long-term plans than any visa. The six-year rule is real and is routinely reported as a five-year rule by people who have not read it. As a tax resident, in your first six consecutive years of residence your foreign-source income is taxed only if it is borne by a Chinese entity. From the seventh consecutive year, worldwide income becomes taxable. The count resets if you spend 30 or more consecutive days outside China in any year. Thirty days abroad, not a weekend in Bangkok.

Ways to move to China

Read the quick read column before the programme name. The route that looks closest to your situation is usually the one with the worst settlement answer.

The programmes

K visa. A ten-year multiple-entry visa for young STEM graduates of “well-known” universities, in force in law since 1 October 2025 and still without a functioning application channel a year later. No employer sponsor, no invitation letter, no published income test, no published definition of “young” or “well-known”. It also confers no work permit and no residence permit, so landing on one does not let you work or stay past 180 days. One confirmed public issuance exists in twelve months.

Foreigner’s work permit, categories A, B and C. The only route most foreigners will ever use. Category A needs 85 points or six times the local average wage, which in Beijing in 2026 means RMB 859,464 a year. Category B needs 60 points or four times the local average, RMB 572,976 in Beijing. Category C is quota-bound and builds no PR record. The employer must hold a foreign work permit registration, which is where most otherwise qualified hires fail.

R visa. The talent visa, for people a Chinese institution has already decided it wants: Nobel-level scientists, senior professors, founders recruited under a provincial programme. No income test at all. The gate is a Confirmation Letter that you cannot apply for yourself, and the criteria are internal to the issuing province or ministry.

Permanent residence, the five-star card. Four routes: investment, four years as a senior employee, five years of marriage to a Chinese citizen, or age 60 with no direct relatives abroad. The card is cancelled if you spend less than three months a year in China, or less than a year in any five-year period. That condition is enforced.

What China is bad at

The two largest groups of would-be long-stay foreigners, remote workers and retirees, have no route at all. Not a narrow one, not an expensive one. None. There is no digital nomad visa and there is no retirement visa, and the only retirement-shaped status requires a Chinese relative and age 60. The K visa was announced as the answer to the first gap and has spent a year as a category on a portal with no checklist behind it. Permanent residence is administered city by city with no transparency, so a qualified applicant can wait two years and be refused without a reason. The employee PR test is calibrated for executives at six times the local average wage, which excludes nearly every foreign professional actually working in the country. And the work permit system adds a hard age 60 ceiling for new applicants in the largest cities, which arrives years before most people have finished planning.

Guides

• K visa: what was enacted, what was never published, and why one issuance is the whole evidence base
• Work permit A, B and C: the points tables, the salary multiples, and the renewal trap
• R visa: the Confirmation Letter, who can champion you, and why self-nomination does not exist
• Permanent residence: all four routes, the residence conditions, and the tax position of a cardholder

Sources

• National Immigration Administration, permanent residence and visa guidance, checked 2026-10-22
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular visa portal, visa categories, checked 2026-10-22
• Shanghai municipal government, foreign talent work permit thresholds, 2026
• State Taxation Administration, individual income tax rules for foreign residents, six-year rule
• The Diplomat, one year on from the K visa, October 2026, secondary

Last updated 2026-10-22.